At first glance, the sidebar looks like a handy extension of the search application. It can reside on the side of your screen and provide you recent news, updates to your favorite feeds, a scratch pad for you to jot down ideas and more.

In addition, you can download a bunch of extensions to do all sorts of things - like check and index your Gmail account, provide real time local weather and more. And I'm sure as time goes on there will be even more add-ins to the sidebar.

But what really hits me is the impact this little application will have on the competition.

First and foremost is the desktop space it takes. The sidebar is one of the first attempts by Google to take screen space from the Microsoft dominated desktop. Sure it doesn't occupy much space, but look at what it offers the user. One click access to all their most important information: email, news, weather, a notepad, stock quotes and more. You can even use it to view your pictures.

But wait, it doesn't stop there. Some of the sidebar plug-ins are direct competitors to Konfabulator widgets. If you don't already know, Yahoo! recently bought Konfabulator. So Google is in essence taking on both Microsoft and Yahoo! with this new product. The system monitor plug-in is a direct competitor to at least two widgets, as is the weather plug-in and the feed reader (what Google calls web clips).

These same side bar additions also will take on the MSN toolbar plug-ins, as well as the more popular FireFox extensions. Essentially, each company is trying to bring more of the web to the desktop.

Therefore it only makes sense that Google will make as many of its products more available to the desktop, and not tied to the browser as other products are.

We've already seen this happen - with the introduction of Google Earth - the free application that uses satellite imagery to show you landmarks, addresses, and driving directions. Google Earth combines streaming web imagery with the desktop application.

And of course there have been rumors flying about a Google operating system or Google browser. But to date these two applications are the only 'real' Google desktop based applications. I'm sure more will follow however.

I have to tell you - I've been using the new Desktop Search tool since it came out a few days ago and I'm very impressed with the sidebar.

This is mainly because of the convenience of the plug-ins you can get. At a glance I can see how much memory my computer is using, what the weather is today (and what it will be tomorrow), how much my favorite stocks are trading for, how much my AdSense account has made for me today, and even the sites I visit most often. Not to mention the news headlines.

No longer do I have to launch a browser to get some of this information. It makes me more productive because I have it ay my fingertips. The sidebar seems to mesh really well with both my online and offline activities.

In addition, Google just today launched Google talk - an IM client with voice capabilities. Now two people with Gmail accounts can talk via the web. And the software can run on multiple platforms Like Mac and Linux via 3rd party applications like iChat and GAIM.

In fact, up until today Google was missing a crucial part of the online market. Recent studies from Neilsen/Netratings indicate that communications is where most people spend their time online. This includes email and chat. Search is quite low in terms of total share of the online market. However other recent Google products, such as Google Maps and Google News attempt to capture the next largest piece of the pie - Content.

In July 2005, the share of time spent online broke down as follow:

Communications: 42.0%
Content 26.1%
Commerce: 17.4%
Search: 4.5%

Aside from the desktop implications I mentioned earlier, it is these online markets where Google can really capture some market share. As long as it can differentiate itself from the other IM clients like the MSN or Yahoo! IM client, then it should be able to not only gain market, but gain it at the expense of the other more established software packages. They are doing it with Email, as well as Google News and Maps (Google Maps already accounts for 10% of online map usage just a few months after its release). Once they build a platform for exchanging money (comparable to PayPal) they can and will move more into commerce.

Therefore I'm going to make this prediction - by this time next year or sooner we will see a Google PayPal clone, as well as the beginnings of a Google Store of some kind. And not just one where you buy Google branded stuff - but one where you could buy a pair of socks or a 60" plasma TV.


Rob Sullivan
Head Organic Search Strategist
Enquiro Full Service Search Engine Marketing


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